“I doubt it,” Lenya said with a chuckle. “We came upon her picking flowers in an open meadow on the forest’s edge. We had passed a hut where an old woman lived. Shifra said it was her home and her grandmother.”

“In the forest?” the slave master said. “But she has not the look of Forest Folk.”

“She is probably Midlands born, but the hut was poor, which means the farm from which the old woman came was probably bought up or confiscated by the emperor some years ago. She says she’s an orphan. Do you really care?” Lenya asked.

“Is it too much to ask if she is a virgin?” the slave master said hopefully.

Lenya grinned. “I verified it myself. The maiden’s barrier is there. I did not damage it, knowing its value.”

The slave master reached out to squeeze one of Shifra’s breasts. Gasping, the girl drew back like a scalded cat, her eyes wide with shock. The man chortled. “I shall want a thirty per cent commission,” he said.

“Do not be greedy,” Lenya scolded him. “This maid will sell in less than five minutes and the only reason it will take that long will be because the bidding will be hot and heavy. I will give you ten percent.”

“Twenty,” the slave master replied.

“Fifteen and not a coin more,” Lenya responded.

“Agreed!” the slave master said. “And you are just in time, for the private auction is beginning first. Come in and you may view the proceedings. I will sell the girl last, however, in order to get a fair price for the rest of my merchandise but do not fear. There are only five others. Top quality is difficult to come by these days.”

Lenya saw Shifra led away and he settled down to watch the auction. Two girls were quickly auctioned off to Pleasure Houses. A third to a wealthy magnate. There was a faint stirring in the audience behind him but Lenya did not bother to turn about. The remaining two slave girls were sold. Then the slave master stepped forward.

“My lords,” he said. “I have less than an hour ago received for sale a virgin of such incomparable beauty that it will be many years before I receive such a slave again.” He clapped his hands and Shifra was led out to be placed in the center of a small raised dais. “Young, my lords. Untouched. Rare.”

“And expensive,” said a voice in a group of men to appreciative laughter.

The slave master joined in their laughter. “Aye, my lords, expensive.”

“Let us see what it is you really offer,” another voice called.

The slave master nodded to Shifra and reaching up she undid her gown, letting it fall to her feet. Slowly, carefully she pirouetted about as she had been told to do and she heard the whispering sighs from the men gazing up at her. They admired the small round breasts with the berry nipples. The admired her lush thighs and her plump buttocks.

The slave master allowed them to look their fill and then he said, “What am I bid for this piece of perfection, my lords?”

Lenya held his breath waiting. Would he gain five thousand coins for her? Six?

“I bid fifty thousand gold cubits,” a voice called from the audience.

“Fifty thousand,” the slave master said as if it were a mere opening bid. His heart was hammering against his rib cage. “I am bid fifty thousand. Who will bid sixty?” He looked about the chamber. “Come my lords, will no one else bid for this rare beauty?”

The room remained silent and so the slave master brought down his small gavel. “Fifty thousand gold. The slave girl Shifra is sold to our gracious and glorious emperor, Gaius Prospero, for fifty thousand gold cubits.” The gavel hit the slave master’s podium with a loud thunk. “Done for fifty thousand gold cubits!”

It was only then that Lenya dared to turn about. And there was the emperor himself. He was staring intently at Shifra. No wonder no one else had dared to bid against him, he thought. But then, had the emperor not bid, neither he nor the slave master would now be rich men. He almost laughed aloud. He was done with slaving, he decided in that moment. After today nothing he did would compare with this.

A servant of the emperor made his way to the slave master and gave him a scrip with the emperor’s seal upon it. “Bring this to the treasury at your convenience. You will be paid there. Send the girl to the emperor’s home in the Golden District at once.”

Then he turned and departed.

“We do not have the gold?” Lenya said nervously.

“I will put today’s open auction in the hands of my son,” the slave master said. “You and I shall go immediately to the treasury, my friend, and collect our payment. I trust no one, especially not the emperor. The girl shall not leave this place until we have our coin.”

Lenya nodded and together the two men hurried to the large treasury building, a new structure located just inside the gates of the Golden District. Showing the scrip with the emperor’s seal they were permitted entry. An officious clerk peered suspiciously at the paper and then without a word called for his superior who in turn called for the assistant treasurer who looked at the scrip.

Then he said, “How do you wish this paid out, sir?”

“In a lump sum,” the slave master said.

“No,” Lenya interjected. “Pay him his seven thousand five hundred coins. The remainder you will transfer immediately to Avram the Goldsmith in my name.”

“You bank with Avram?” The slave master was surprised.

The assistant treasurer turned to the slave master. “Sir?”

“Do as he says,” the slave master told him. “He is Lenya the Slaver. The merchandise was his. I will take my commission and go.”

“Have my monies transferred now,” Lenya told the assistant treasurer. “I am going to Avram to get the coin I will need to pay my men.”

“I am curious,” the slave master said while the paperwork for the transfer was prepared. “What do you pay your men?”

“They will each get five percent of my profit,” Lenya answered. “It is usually two percent of our sales. But I have never before gotten such a sum for a bevy of slaves, let alone one girl. I’m not a greedy man. My men have all been loyal and with me a long time. I shall retire to a small villa in the Coastal Kingdom now and take a wife.”

“Here is your record of the transfer of funds,” the assistant treasurer said, handing the papers to Lenya.

“Good day to you then,” Lenya told them and he was gone from the treasury.

“What did you sell for him?” the assistant treasurer asked the auctioneer, curious.

“A slave girl-an extraordinarily beautiful slave girl. The emperor purchased her,” the slave master said. “Fifty thousand gold coins. Not even the legendary Lara earned that sum for Gaius Prospero.”

The treasurer handed the slave master a heavy bag of coins. “You shall have an escort back to your establishment,” he said. “Courtesy of the emperor, sir.”

“Thank you,” the slave master nodded. He must be quick. The slave girl Shifra must be delivered immediately now that she had been paid for in full. He hurried from the treasury with the two armed mercenaries. When he returned he discovered that a litter had been sent from the emperor for his new purchase. His assistant, afraid to refuse a royal transport, had already sent the girl along. The slave master did not chide the man. He was actually relieved to be rid of Shifra now. Someone that beautiful was bound to cause trouble sooner or later.

Shifra watched curiously as the litter carrying her passed through the streets of The City. She had been created for loving, Prince Kaliq had told her. She was meant for only a great man. Certainly the emperor was a great man. Did he not rule all of Hetar? She smiled, remembering how she had awakened one day to find the Shadow Princes standing over her. They had tended her lovingly and taught her all about passion and pleasures without once disturbing her virginity, which they assured her was for a great man alone. Who was she, she asked them? An orphan, they told her, raised by her grandmother and when they told her that, her memories of Nona were suddenly there. She had become lost in the forest and they had found her and healed her. Now she must return to her grandmother and let her fate play out. And because she had trusted the princes she had done as they bid her. And now she was to be rewarded. Gaius Prospero, the princes told Shifra, was going to fall in love with her. She had but to follow her instincts with him.

The litter bearers hurried through the gates of the Golden District. The girl within looked out and saw a beautiful park surrounding the great marble mansions that dotted the landscape. They passed through another set of gates guarded by men-at-arms in elegant dark-blue-and-gold uniforms. Shifra heard gravel crunching beneath the sandals of the bearers, and then they came to a stop. The litter was set down, the curtain was opened and a hand reached in to help her out.

“I am Tania, Lady Shifra, and I have been assigned to care for you,” the owner of the hand said. “If you will please follow me I will take you to the quarters that have been arranged for you.” She moved quickly away and Shifra had to run to keep up.

They walked through a beautiful rotunda. At its center was a rectangular fountain decorated with a boy riding a bronze dolphin that spouted water from its mouth. There were water hyacinths floating in the pool and benches upon which to sit. Shifra had never seen anything like it and thought it was wonderful.

“It is a very big house,” she ventured softly.

“It is,” Tania agreed. “And since the master became emperor it has gotten even bigger. The northern wing, which was once used for housing my master’s special merchandise, has been rebuilt and enlarged. There is now a throne room, a great room for entertaining, a new dining room for feeding guests and, of course, the emperor’s right hand, Lord Jonah, has his offices and living quarters there. Such a man for work, Lord Jonah! Nowadays he spends a several months a year in Terah as the emperor’s ambassador, as well. He is probably the only person in Hetar that our emperor trusts.”